The Chief Minister Is My Childhood Betrothed

After an unexpected transmigration, Chang Ying tearfully pinched her malnourished little arms and legs, then accepted without a flicker of emotion the ramshackle hut that even mice wouldn't visit.

To keep her family from starving, she put the perfume recipes she'd spent years collecting in her previous life to use. She worked diligently to help her family prosper, and along the way, helped a down-and-out young scholar.

From its humble beginnings, the Chang family's perfume shop gradually became one of Songyang's most prominent businesses, expanding throughout the provinces and the Central Plains, and eventually reaching the capital and foreign lands.

Young ladies across the capital yearned for its products, unable to get their hearts' desires. Aristocrats of the highest standing flocked to buy them, even trampling one another to get through the door...

And the bright-eyed, charming young Lady Chang made countless young men in the capital blush in secret.

Just as she was planning to settle down and find herself a well-behaved, sensible husband, she discovered to her dismay that the well-mannered young men she'd taken a liking to yesterday would all avoid her and turn her down three times over by the very next day.

Rumors began to spread that she was a shrew, a tigress no one in the capital dared marry.

Then, the very next day, someone arrived at her door with a lavish bridal procession stretching ten miles to ask for her hand

He was graceful and radiant, peerlessly handsome: none other than Zhao Ke, this year's newly appointed third-place winner of the imperial examinations, personally selected by the emperor!

This young scholar, whose good looks had made countless noblewomen swoon, now stood before Chang Ying like an abandoned puppy. "A Ying, you once said you'd take me in as your child bridegroom. Are you going to take advantage of me and then cast me aside?"

Chang Ying: ...Stunned dog.jpg

#I thought you were a kid I was raising, but you want to marry me!? #

A delicate, gentle chief councilor & a mighty, martial young Lady Chang

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A few notes:

1. The main plot is making perfume and building a fortune, along with studying hard for the imperial examinations.

2. A simple, cozy farming story.

3. Feel free to share your thoughts or drop the story if you like, but please don't insult anyone or start arguments.

My next story, I Led the Whole Sect to Ascension, is available for pre-order. Here's the blurb:

The moment Shang Yiwei opened her eyes, she realized she'd transmigrated into a brutal world of immortals and cultivators.

Spiritual energy had run dry, the path to immortality was blocked, and no one had ascended in a thousand years.

Cultivators slaughtered one another to fight for the faintest chance of survival, while ordinary people were no more than ants to them.

A mortal with no spiritual power, she had no choice but to join a cultivation sect and seek its protection. She clung to Tianyan Sect, the biggest backer around.

Within Tianyan Sect, her fellow disciples were cultured and easygoing, caring for her with the utmost attention. Outside, powerful experts stood guard day and night, mighty enough to crush the entire continent, making her feel quite safe.

She thought she could keep lying low forever. But with spiritual energy depleted, it turned out no one in the sect cultivated at all. They were all neglecting their proper work.

Her seemingly cultured senior brothers were actually notorious warmongers in the cultivation world, with enough enemies to form a line three thousand miles long.

The seemingly dependable expert assigned to protect the sect was as delicate as a flower in the rain, coughing blood whenever the wind blew, and looking ready to die at any moment. Yet this expert had defied everyone's objections to take her as a disciple, then cheerfully handed her the sect's authority

"Dear disciple, your master is frail. Work hard at your cultivation, and I'll leave it to you to get the entire sect to buckle down and improve!"

Shang Yiwei: ...They'd listen to me? As if. The spiritual energy's all gone, so what's the point of cultivating? We might as well retire and farm!

Grumbling, she found a remote, barren spot and planned to turn it into a retirement paradise. She meant to raise chickens and grow vegetables, but the moment she put her hoe in the ground, she unearthed a spiritual leyline powerful enough for the entire sect to cultivate!

Shang Yiwei: Oh wow.

The whole sect: Oh wow.

As her fellow disciples stood there dumbstruck, Shang Yiwei wore a wicked smile like a school disciplinarian.

From then on, she chased the whole sect around, and they wailed and cried as they practiced. Every few days, she threw them into brutal dungeon trials to fight for their lives. The people of Tianyan Sect improved so quickly that the entire cultivation world was left gaping:

"That demoness has uncovered four more spiritual leylines and brought them back to the sect today!"

"Have you heard? Tianyan Sect has crushed those troublemaking rivals again!"

"Urgent report! Tianyan Sect plans to restore the path to immortality tomorrow and ascend as a group!!!"

Everyone, wringing their handkerchiefs: Why don't we have a powerful expert to carry us, too...

Tianyan Sect disciples, shrugging helplessly: We didn't want things to turn out this way, but Senior Sister dug up too many spiritual leylines~

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Completed story: Can This Wicked Step-Mother Be Redeemed?

My friend's new story: Mind Your Own Business, She's a Beauty [Entertainment Industry]

Theme: Heaven rewards diligence